Saturday, 15 October 2011

Carrying Water - How much can a Grade 5 student carry?

My partner teacher Marion MacQueen made a great inquiry into carrying water. As a part of our inquiry into Life on a Limited Budget we have been looking at how people in the villages live in Indonesia. We have learned that there are many people who live in places that don't have clean water. The children in Grade 5 were asked to find out how much water they are able to carry.

We took our initial inquiry into carrying water a step further by actually experimenting with filling and carrying buckets. By now the class knew that you needed 2 litres a day to survive, and 25 litres a day to stay clean and healthy. What did those quantities look like? How much can be carried in a bucket?